New exclusive research has uncovered that more than 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access to United Nations climate summits over the past four years, a period coinciding with record-breaking extreme weather and a significant expansion of oil and gas operations.
Unprecedented Industry Access to Climate Negotiations
The investigation, shared exclusively with the Guardian by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition, found that approximately 5,350 lobbyists representing the oil, gas, and coal industries mingled with world leaders and climate negotiators between the Cop26 summit in Glasgow and Cop29 in Baku. These lobbyists worked for at least 859 fossil fuel organisations, including trade groups, foundations, and 180 companies involved in every stage of the fossil fuel supply chain.
Alarmingly, just 90 of the fossil fuel corporations that sent representatives to these crucial talks were responsible for more than half (57%) of all the oil and gas produced globally in 2024. This production equated to 33,699 million barrels of oil equivalent – enough to cover the entire land area of Spain with a one-centimetre blanket of oil.
Blocking Climate Action While Planning Expansion
The analysis reveals a stark contradiction between the stated goals of the climate negotiations and the actions of the participating fossil fuel companies. The same 90 firms account for almost two-thirds (63%) of all short-term upstream fossil fuel expansion projects currently in development, according to the Global Oil and Gas Exit List.
If these projects proceed, the oil produced would be sufficient to coat the combined landmass of seven European nations – France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway – in that same one-centimetre layer. This expansion occurs despite mounting scientific consensus that the world has already failed to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The scale of industry presence became particularly evident at last year's Cop29 in Azerbaijan, where 1,773 registered fossil fuel lobbyists attended. This figure was 70% higher than the total number of delegates from the ten nations most vulnerable to climate change combined.
Growing Calls for Exclusion and Systemic Reform
These findings have intensified demands from climate advocates and Indigenous groups for a ban on fossil fuel companies from the UN climate negotiation process. Adilson Vieira, spokesperson for the Amazonian Work Group, stated, "This information clearly exposes corporate capture of the global climate process… the space that should be about science and the people has been transformed into a large carbon business hall."
Brenna Yellowthunder, lead coordinator for the Indigenous Environmental Network, echoed this sentiment, saying, "We need to take down the ‘for sale’ sign on Mother Earth and bar entry to Cop for oil and gas lobbyists."
Major oil giants maintained a consistent presence at these summits. Between 2021 and 2024, Shell sent 37 lobbyists, BP sent 36, ExxonMobil sent 32, and Chevron sent 20. In the last five years, these four companies collectively made over $420 billion in profits.
While new transparency rules at Cop30 in Belem now require delegates to disclose their funding sources, campaigners argue this is insufficient. Mohammed Usrof of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy commented, "The new rules are a welcome start, but they come decades too late… transparency without exclusion is performative. The UNFCCC must move from disclosure to disqualification."
As the talks open in the Brazilian Amazon, a region acutely threatened by expanding fossil fuel exploitation, the fundamental integrity of the global climate process hangs in the balance, with urgent calls for reform growing louder.
